At least 27 dead, including 18 children in Connecticut school shooting

DFM staff and wire report

Posted:
12/14/2012 12:43:33 PM MST

NEWTOWN, Conn. - At least 27 people -- including 18 children -- were killed Friday morning at a local elementary school, marking the deadliest shooting ever in Connecticut and one of the worst ever in the country.

The shooting happened at about 9:40 a.m. at Sandy Hook Elementary School, officials said. Police said one shooter was killed late Friday morning.

A law enforcement official in Washington said the attacker was a 20-year-old man with ties to the school and that one of the guns was a .223-caliber rifle. CNN identified the suspect as 20-year-old Ryan Lanza.

The official also said that New Jersey State Police were searching a location in that state in connection with the shootings. That official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.
Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter heard two big bangs and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.

"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said.

The superintendent's office said the district had locked down schools in Newtown, about 60 miles northeast of New York City. Schools in neighboring towns also were locked down as a precaution.

A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital.

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Andrea Rynn, a spokeswoman at the hospital, said it had three patients from the school but she did not have information on the extent or nature of their injuries.

Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman, said a shooter was dead inside the building. He did not release any details on any of the victims and did not address reports of a second shooter.

The event sent shockwaves throughout the state and the nation and generated a response from the FBI and a statement from the White House. Federal authorities are working with Newtown and state police to coordinate the response.

Three people were being treated early Friday afternoon at Danbury Hospital. It wasnt immediately clear how many others were injured.

Sarah Walker Carson, a former New Haven Register reporter, said her young son, Will, was in the school at the time of the shooting.

"I've never been more terrified in my life," she said. "My heart was pounding. I couldn't race fast enough (to the school)."

Walker Caron said she believes authorities are "doing the best they can."

She said that she had only heard rumors at this point, and could notconfirm them, but she had heard that there could still be children in the school.

Mergim Bajraliu, a student at Newtown High School, 17, has a sister, 9, who is in fourth grade at the school.

They live nearby, and he heard the shots because he had stayed home from school today. He and his mother went to the school before most of the responders arrived to get his sister.

"My first was thought was, 'Oh my God. ... You start to put the pieces together. You would never think this would happen in an area like this."

He saw a police officer carrying out a little girl whose body was limp.

"The cop was just carrying her and she was leaning back. It was very traumatizing," he said.

A reporter observed three state troopers with canines walking around the woods nearby, and parents leading their young children away from the scene.

The state police major crime squad van is on the scene. Four or five helicopters hovered overhead.

Many parents walked down street holding hands with their children.

"I heard what happened on the news, and I just headed here to get my son," said a mother, Maria Nascimento.

Audra Barth, another mother who has two children at Sandy Hook Elementary, "The parents were given no information. I was just at home going crazy. I didn't even know which school it was. I found out from media."

Luie Munguia, 8, a third-grader at the school, said, "I heard gunshots; I was under a desk with three or four other people." He said police then came in. Luie said he did not see anyone who got hurt.

He was walking with his mom, Lindsay Sweeney, and grandmother, Kathy Sweeney

"It is surreal, like something out of a movie. I heard a child didn't make it. I'm just praying for everyone," Lindsay Sweeney said.

Richard Wilson, 36, of Sandy Hook, said he and his wife were home when they got the call that there was a shooting at their son's school.

Their son, Richie, 7, said the gun shots sounded like "really loud pots were banging."

"It's the most terrible moment of a parent's life - you have no idea," Richard Wilson said.

Police told reporters to stay out of the woods and stick to the road. Officers with weapons drawn were stopping cars and questioning motorists. They looked in car windows in a nearby parking lot

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